June 2, 2002	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 20,1423

GENEVA, June 1: Switzerland hailed its new economic accords with the EU as a “quantum leap” forward, as the deal marking closer ties between the traditionally isolationist Alpine state and its European neighbours came into force on Saturday.

The seven accords, first agreed in 1998, remove some barriers on labour, land and air transport, agriculture, bidding for public contracts, technical standards, and research and development.

In a newspaper interview on Saturday, Swiss President Kaspar Villiger, who is also the finance minister, hailed the accords as a quantum leap for Swiss lives.

Well beyond the economic impact, there’s a psychological freedom: when our youngsters know that they can live and work anywhere in the EU, when young Europeans are aware that they can find a job in Switzerland, then it shows that we are getting used to each other and growing up together, Villiger told the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper.

Ten years after Swiss voters rejected membership of the European Economic Area (EEA) — which had aimed to ease commercial links between the EU and non-members — the accords are designed to limit the negative effects of Switzerland’s relative isolation.

Swiss officials on Friday estimated that they could add two per cent to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) within five years.

Swiss voters approved the package in a referendum in May 2000 but final ratification by each of the EU’s 15 member states was only completed in April.

The most sensitive of the seven agreements, on free movement of labour — which will be introduced gradually over a 12-year period — allows EU and Swiss citizens to settle and work freely in either area.

Within the next two years, Swiss nationals will be able to work in any of their EU neighbours without special permit or visa requirements, and enjoy the same rights as EU nationals.

However EU citizens employed in Switzerland will still be subject to quota system for another five years. In 2009, the agreement must be reconfirmed, possibly leading to another referendum on the issue in Switzerland.

Under the land transport accord, Switzerland will gradually remove its limit on trucks weighing more than 28 tons and allow up to 40-ton trucks — the EU norm — to cross its territory on payment of a substantial tax.

Bern favours measures to encourage companies to transport their goods by rail rather than road. The issue has triggered tensions with some of its EU neighbours.

On air transport, the agreement grants Swiss airlines access to the deregulated European market.

However Swiss ministers insist that a bid for full membership of the EU, with its political obligations, is still a distant prospect.

Swiss voters roundly rejected a referendum proposal last year to immediately begin talks on joining the 15-nation bloc.—AFP